Pickled Beets

By jobustitch

From my Grandmother: Marian Harris

Ingredients

• Syrup:
• 5 lbs of uniformly small beets, or larger beets than can be cut into pieces
• 2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. whole allspice
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces.

Preparation

Step 1

Place beets in a very large kettle, after they have been trimmed of all by 1 inch of the tops and scrubbed well. Add just enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so that water boils gently; cover and cook about 20 to 25 minutes or until beets are firm but tender. Drain; cool beets just until easy to handle, then slip off the skins. Trim off the tops and root ends. Set aside.

Prepare pickling mixture. Add ingredients to a large pot and bring syrup to a boil. Add the beets and cook about 10 to 15 minutes (low heat). Pack beets into hot jars to can. Cover with boiling syrup. Process 5 minutes in a hot-water bath. Or, the beets may be left uncanned and served hot or chilled in the pickling syrup.